


Fallout

by akire_yta



Category: Leverage
Genre: Multi, akificlet, post-Last Dam Job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-23 01:58:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/920643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(or, five pieces of my personal headcanon, post- The Last Dam Job)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fallout

Archie’s daughter was named by [](http://marag.livejournal.com/profile)[**marag**](http://marag.livejournal.com/) and this was looked over by [](http://sparrowsverse.livejournal.com/profile)[**sparrowsverse**](http://sparrowsverse.livejournal.com/). All other mistakes are mine. Spoilers for Leverage up to The Last Dam Job. Rating is about the same for the show.

**Archie and Gwen**

She was waiting for him in his kitchen when he got home. “You know,” she said without even a hello. “Dan wondered, when we first started seeing each other, how an accountant could afford such a nice house.” She sniffed as Archie lowered himself carefully on the other side of the kitchen table. He wondered if she'd been waiting for him here the entire time. “Now I wonder how you could afford it with two families.” Gwen looked him in the eye, and Archie's heart broke as he saw his daughter had been crying. “You never even...I never would have suspected, in a million years. Who was she, did mom know, did you marry her, or was it a secret child?” The questions came tumbling out in a flood.

Archie smiled as she finally ran out. “I adopted Parker,” he said gently, and Gwen's eyes widened slightly as those three words derailed whatever sordid visions Gwen had concocted. “Raised her, trained her. You were my family, but she was to be my legacy.”

He could see she didn't understand. “Legacy, dad?” she asked, confused, though no longer so angry. Archie saw so much of her mother in his daughter right then, and he wished Anna was still there with them both.

He tilted his head. “I did lie. But not about her.” He smirked. “Your husband is perhaps more perceptive than I gave him credit for. I'm not an accountant. I,” Here it was, the big reveal. Archie felt calm, like he was on the cusp of a perfect heist. “Am a jewel thief.”

The statement stole Gwen's breath away, and if he had any doubts about the plan he had hatched as he had flown home, that erased them.

He missed the thrill of the take. Any take. “Daddy?” she asked, voice tiny.

Archie stood up and limped over to put on the kettle. “I'm a thief,” he told her again. “I stole jewels, cash, money. Your mother never knew, and that kept her safe. Oh, and by the way,” he added over his shoulder as he dropped a spoonful of tea into his teapot. “I'm not going into a home. I'm going to Geneva. There's a tiara I have my eye on. Maybe I'll bring you back a little something. If you're good.”

**Hardison and Parker**

“Archie approves,” Parker blurted out.

Hardison looked up, startled. Parker had led him here, when he'd started making noises about a hotel, given their current addresses were still probably too hot. But when they had arrived, she had promptly disappeared into the rafters, leaving him standing alone in the middle of the floor.

Hardison had opened up his laptop and just started cruising the web. It had been obvious that she had something on her mind, but like the girl had said, with people, sometimes you just needed to be patient. But now that Parker was talking, he closed the machine and turned around in his seat to stare into the darkest corner. She could have been talking to him, or the words could have just come out. “Of?” he asked slowly, carefully.

“You.” There was a tiny shower of dust and Parker dropped to the floor like a cat. “He approves of you. And,” she bit her lip, a tiny nervous habit that Hardison adored. “I'm glad?” Her face screwed up as the words turned into a question on her lips.

Hardison nodded. “I'm glad you're glad, and that he approves,” he said evenly. He opened his arms slowly and waited as Parker crept into his embrace.

Patience, and a little luck, and even Parker would unlock.

**Maggie and Sophie**

“Did he do that thing, you know, with the..?” Sophie smacked her lips and waved her hands, and Maggie's eyes widened as she nodded. The uproarious laughter caught the attention of several other diners, but the two attractive women seated around the corner table ignored them.

“I tried,” Maggie said with a serious nod. “For years to break him of that habit. If you can do it, you're a better woman than I!”

“A sneakier one, perhaps,” Sophie conceded, raising her glass in a toast.

Maggie chimed her wineglass against Sophie's. “Oh, if only I knew then what I know now,” she sighed. She turned her head slightly to watch a younger man cross the floor to the front of the restaurant. “Then again, what I know now might come in handy.”

Sophie turned to get a look. “Oh no,” she tsked. “Gay.”

“Really?” Maggie asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Supergay.” She nodded at a man sitting alone quietly by the window. “Him, on the other hand.”

Maggie checked him out. “Really? I guess he's got that cute nerd thing...”

Sophie snickered into her wine. “And a thousand dollar suit with sneakers. Computer geek. Faded tan line on his finger, divorce went through about six months ago. Not looking for commitment, but definitely open to showering expensive gifts on someone to clear his head.” She shrugged at Maggie's quietly impressed look. “You learn to read people, in my line of work.”

“I'm getting that.” Maggie leaned over slightly to one side to give the man another assessing glance, like he was a work of art she was considering acquiring. “Maybe after dessert. Tell me more about this reading thing first.”

The two women in the corner table were no longer cackling. Their heads were bowed together as they talked quietly, intently. For some reason, that made the waiters feel even more nervous.

**Eliot and Nate**

They sat side by side on the sofa, watching the game on the hotel room TV. “Where to next?” Eliot asked as onscreen the coaches dragged their teams into a huddle.

“Portland,” Nate said with easy confidence.

Eliot nodded. “Good. I'll go on ahead, take Hardison. We'll set things up, you tie off loose ends here.”

Nate nodded. “Thanks,” he added, tapping his beer bottle against Eliot's. He didn't need to say what for. They knew.

They settled back in to watch the game.

**Chaos and Quinn**

There was no way around it. He needed a hacker. Not just any hacker. He needed the best.

Hardison would be his first choice, but Quinn was smart enough to realize that the cordial dislike he and Eliot had struck up would turn to death quick enough if he tried to poach the kid.

That left him with Plan B, after which his alphabet of options ran out. With a steadying breath, he dialed the number and explained the job to the curt voice on the other end of the line. “Usual fee, plus 5% of the diamonds,” he added. That was diving into his own cut, but given this job was a favor in the lines of 'we know where you live and you owe us' school of favors, Quinn didn't want to lose his only chance at a hacker.

There was a pause. Then a question. “Yes, this time I have an exit,” he told the voice. He hung up with a hacker and a headache.

How did Eliot not just want to hit things all the time, he did not know.


End file.
